Carl Orff was born in Munich in 1895, where he studied at the Academy of Music, later occupying positions as director of music at the Munich Kammerspiele, the Mannheim National theater and the Landestheater at Darmstadt. In 1919 he returned to Munich and five years later established with Dorothee Guenther the Guentherschule for gymnastics, music and dance. The result was his influential Schulwerk, which has had a marked influence on the teaching of music, with its use of tuned percussion instruments, ostinato rhythms and creative aims, associated with physical movement.